This is a sponsored post by Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate.
In my last post about the year in real estate I talked about how the low housing inventory didn’t seem to be driving buyer panic or seller over-confidence.
The market behavior is balanced but very active. As one would expect in this post-holiday week there are very few new listings and only 106 active properties on the market.
What I think is interesting is that 55 properties went into Pending status over the past 30 days and more than half of those did so in the last two weeks!
There are buyers out there looking, so if you’re thinking of selling it might be a good time to clean out the closets and call your agent.
Here are a few of the new listing this week:
Meet Carter, a brown and chocolate tabby kitten available for adoption locally.
Here is what his friends at Little Buddies Adoption and Humane Society have to say about him:
Carter is an amazingly affectionate young man. He loves people and loves to sit in laps. He runs to his foster mom when he sees her and loves to follow her around.
He also loves to run around and chase his toys. He will be the perfect companion to the lucky one who adopts him.
He does have to take stool softener daily because he may have a narrowing of part of his intestines, but this does not bother him. He loves his medicines and thinks they are treats.
(Note: Little Buddies has adoption events every Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at Pet Valu in the North Point Village Shopping Center.)
Are you and Carter a match? If so, let us know and our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, will send you some treats and prizes.
Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?
Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.
Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.
This is a sponsored post from Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate. For a more complete picture of home sales in your neighborhood, contact her on Reston Real Estate.
Reston had a really strong 2018 in real estate. The total volume of transactions will finish at about 1,300 and the average home price was 474,000 a 5% increase over last year.
Inventory of homes for sale has been very low but hasn’t caused any type of panic in the buyers, nor has it embolden the seller to push their list prices up. Days on market are now averaging 40, and about 45% of 2018 transactions included a seller contribution to the buyers closing costs.
Reston continues to be an appealing housing market for many buyers. The metro, the Dulles Tech corridor combined with diverse housing options and great amenities puts Reston on the top of a lot of buyer’s lists.
Here are the numbers for the past 10 years.
This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Northern Virginia that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement and private sector employee matters.
By John V. Berry, Esq.
We practice employment law. A new trend that the Federal Reserve and others have picked up on recently is the concept of “ghosting.” Ghosting occurs when a job applicant does not show up for their scheduled interview or where an employee does not show up for scheduled work and never returns.
What is Ghosting?
In areas which range from food services to banking, employers have indicated that a tighter job market and labor shortages have led to applicants deciding not to show up for scheduled interviews without notice or in accepting positions and then not showing up for their first day of work.
In other cases, ghosting has meant that an employee just decides to leave their employment without giving notice (or telling anyone) and just never shows up again. Other reasons for ghosting include the fact that because the employment rate is very low, it is easier than ever to find new employment. One report indicated that 20-50% of employers were facing ghosting in one form or another.
Why is Ghosting Bad for Employees and Applicants?
Ghosting is very bad for applicants and employees on a number of levels.
For starters, it isn’t a good long-term career strategy. If an employee doesn’t provide notice to an employer that they are leaving, supervisors may call the police for a wellness check, leading to a host of issues.
Additionally, by leaving in this manner, employees will most likely be deemed by the employer to have abandoned their employment and then classified as having been terminated. As a result, the employee that “ghosts” away from their employment will be left with a negative mark on their employment records, which they may have to disclose in future employment applications elsewhere and/or if they choose to ever seek a security clearance. This also applies to new employees that are hired but do not show up for their first day of work.
For applicants that don’t show up for interviews, doing so can hurt them in other ways. If a recruiter is involved, that recruiter could list the non-appearance in a shared database with other recruiters, essentially blacklisting the person.
With the digital future upon us, it is only a matter of time before such things also end up in background investigations or reports. The point is that “ghosting” is a recipe for hurting one’s own career.
It is important to take the time to give notice to an employer and make a phone call or at least send an email to an employer if an individual they plan to quit or cannot make a scheduled interview. Furthermore, if an applicant “ghosts” a scheduled interview with an employer, that individual’s name may get around to others in the same field, causing them to lose or not get an interview with other employers.
It may be easier to ignore interviews or leave for better employment, but it is far better to do so with professionalism. Ghosting is simply to big a risk for an employee or applicant to their long term career.
Conclusion
If you are in need of employment law advice or assistance, please contact our office at 703-668-0070 or through our contact page to schedule a consultation. Please also visit and like us on Facebook or Twitter.
Meet Twinkle, a shepherd mix puppy available for adoption locally.
Here is what her friends at Safe Haven Puppy Rescue have to say about her:
Meet darling Twinkle This beautiful little girl is just 11 weeks old and has the sweetest disposition ever!
She’s a shepherd mix who now weighs about 7 or 8 pounds, so she won’t be terribly big when grown, maybe around 40 to 45 pounds, a nice medium size!!!
Twinkle is a happy little baby and just wants to be loved — we think she is going to make a terrific companion to her humans or other canine buddies. Her adoption fee includes her microchip, all age appropriate vaccinations and dewormings.
Are you and Twinkle a match? If so, let us know and our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, will send you some treats and prizes.
Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?
Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.
Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.
This is a sponsored post by Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate.
As we roll into the holiday week there are almost no “new” listings. Most folks will wait until the holidays are past before listing their homes for sale. I thought we’d take a quick look at some of the older listings on the market.
When a seller engages an agent to sell their property what they are hiring is (hopefully) expertise in finding the sweet spot of price vs. property condition. Condition of a property is one of the largest drivers of property value, I would say second only to location.
It’s the agent’s job to analyze sales and condition and to provide a comparison of those sold properties against the seller’s property. It’s the seller’s job to pick the price, hopefully based on the data provided.
It can be hard for sellers and buyers to accept that the market is its own thing — we can’t force it to do our bidding. The buyer who comes in with a super low offer thinking they can force a sellers hand will be just as disappointed as the seller who overprices their property with the “I’m not in a hurry, I’ll wait to get my price” strategy. Rarely is either successful.
Here are a few great properties that have been hanging around a while along with their current list price:
- Condo at 120oo Block of New Dominion Parkway, 1 BR/1 BA, 375 Days on Market — $414,000
- Single-Family Home at 12000 Block of Walnut Branch Road, 5 BR/ 4.5 BA, 353 Days on Market — $1,245,000
- Condo at 1800 Block of Fountain Drive, 2 BR/2 BA, 238 Days on Market — $461,000
For the past year I’ve been saying that the market is very price sensitive. What I mean is that properties that are within 10-20k of their best price are hanging on the market — buyers are not aggressively pursuing these “slightly” overpriced properties, they’re letting them sit.
This of course is bad for sellers because the longer they sit the more it costs them (both in carrying costs and in lost opportunities, etc.) what they might have done with the cash had they gotten the house sold.
A seller’s best strategy is always to be the best priced and best presented home in their particular market — stand out by being a market of one, rather than one of many.
Meet Highway, an adult male pointer available for adoption locally.
Here is what his friends at Safe Haven Puppy Rescue have to say about him:
There are many words to describe Highway — but FABULOUS is at the top of the list.
Highway has his name because he roamed the interstate for FOUR months before being caught. This is a mystery because he is the sweetest, friendliest guy you could ever imagine and LOVES people. He does not have a mean bone in his beautiful body, and will make you smile every day.
Highway loves to play… he loves toys and will catch a tennis ball out of mid air and bring it back to be thrown again. He knows some of his basic commands like sit and stay and is house-trained.
He loves other dogs, but mainly wants to be someone’s very best friend… and will jump right into your lap for extra love, if you let him. If not, he’s happy to curl up next to you, beside you, or nearby on his dog bed. He will sit by your desk quietly and wait for his turn for attention.
If you want a dog who truly will bond strongly, and will absolutely worship the ground you walk on, this is it.
Are you and Highway a match? If so, let us know and our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, will send you some treats and prizes.
Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?
Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.
Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.
This is a sponsored post from Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate. For a more complete picture of home sales in your neighborhood, contact her on Reston Real Estate.
I often hear debates about the value of amenities in communities. For those of us that are lucky enough to call Reston home we have an absolute treasure trove of events and activities to choose from to fill our leisure time.
Last Sunday I attended “From Here to There” featuring opera singer Elizabeth Bishop performed at the CenterStage at the Reston Community Center Hunters Woods. It was a lovely evening of storytelling in song and all the more amazing to think that it was available to us all, right in our own backyards for a mere $15!
The CenterStage is about half way through its season but there still lots of great shows to see.
The weekend of January 19-21 is the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. This year features a concert by local artist Crys Mathews. If you haven’t seen her I urge you to get tickets, she’s a remarkable singer songwriter, cut from the cloth of the justice and protest writers of the past but current and relevant in every way imaginable.
The CenterStage season offers a wide range of shows from music to dance to discussions with notable public figures like CBS News commentator and comedian Nancy Giles. If you like jazz you’ll want to take note of Jazzmeia Horn on March 30. She’s amazing!
There really is something for everyone.
This may not seem like it has much to do with real estate but the RCC is a huge value-add to the community — I would argue that its presence in the community, and all the ways it strives to enrich daily life for us all, adds to the desirability of Reston.
This is a sponsored post from Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate. For a more complete picture of home sales in your neighborhood, contact her on Reston Real Estate.
With so few houses on the market, just 141 as of this post, why isn’t it more of a seller’s market? Interest rates are still crazy low, the job market is stable. All indicators seem to point to a market that favors the sellers, and yet it is not. The market is very balanced.
Today’s buyers are informed, methodical and not in a rush. The amount of time buyers spend researching homes online? Countless. Number of homes buyers saw online before engaging a real estate agent? Hundreds. They’ve done their research and are ready.
The median number of weeks buyers spent viewing homes in person was 10 weeks. Once they actually begin looking at homes, they are ready to take action when the right property pops up.
Sellers need to prepare for a little more time on the market with the average days on market sitting at 40. If you really get your place ready to sell and hit the market at the right price you’ll reduce that number considerably.
Here are a few of the recent sales:
11698 Sunrise Square Place
4 BR/4.5 BA
List Price: $963,520
Sold Price: $963,520
1311 Quail Ridge Drive
5 BR/3.5 BA
List Price: $785,000
Sold Price: $775,000
11555 Underoak Court
3 BR/2/2 BA
List Price: $359,000
Sold Price: $353,000
2022 Chadds Ford Drive
3 BR/3.5 BA
List Price: $549,980
Sold Price: $549,980
12000 Market Street #161
1 BR/1 BA
List Price: $315,000
Sold Price: $315,000
This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Northern Virginia that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement and private sector employee matters.
By John V. Berry, Esq.
There have been at least 10 states that have legalized marijuana over the past 5-10 years. The change in state laws has led to significant confusion by security clearance holders about their ability to use marijuana while holding or seeking a security clearance.
States like Massachusetts or California have legalized marijuana, but marijuana use remains illegal under federal criminal law as a Schedule I drug. The state and federal conflict in laws has caused both confusion and problems for security clearance applicants or holders.
Security Clearance Rules Governing Marijuana Usage
Security clearance holders and applicants frequently run into security clearance problems under Guideline H of the Security Clearance Guidelines (Security Executive Agent Directive 4) because they don’t realize that the use of marijuana, even in a state that has legalized it, remains illegal under federal law.
I believe that these guidelines will be amended in the next 5-7 years to change the use of marijuana from a complete ban to an abuse standard, like with alcohol, but the issue remains a problem today for those in the security clearance world.
Additionally, the type of marijuana which is used makes no difference (e.g. candy form, chocolate, brownie, smoking) under the guidelines. We have seen individuals that have had security clearance problems stemming from eating a single gummy candy which contained the active ingredients of marijuana.
We have defended many security clearance clients who have engaged in the light (or even one-time) usage of marijuana, who have had difficulties in overcoming the presumption that even minor use makes one ineligible to hold or maintain a security clearance. If the usage was a long time ago, this can significantly help mitigate a security concern, but the trickiest situations arise when marijuana usage has occurred within the past year.
The key in such cases is to attempt to mitigate security concerns by showing abstinence, changes in attitude, changes in associations with friends that engage in drug use and counseling, where needed.
Guideline H of the SEAD 4 states that:
The illegal use of controlled substances, to include the misuse of prescription and non-prescription drugs, and the use of other substances that cause physical or mental impairment or are used in a manner inconsistent with their intended purpose can raise questions about an individual’s reliability and trustworthiness, both because such behavior may lead to physical or psychological impairment and because it raises questions about a person’s ability or willingness to comply with laws, rules, and regulations. Controlled substance means any “controlled substance” as defined in 21 U.S.C. 802. Substance misuse is the generic term adopted in this guideline to describe any of the behaviors listed above.
Mitigation of Marijuana Use Read More
This is a sponsored post by Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate.
Just 14 new properties were listed in Reston this past week. Inventory is painfully low at just 142 active listings. That represents a housing inventory of less than two months.
It’s not uncommon for additions to inventory to slow at this time of year but hopefully things will loosen up as we move into the New Year.
Here are few of the new homes for sale in Reston.
- 1626 Apricot Ct *, 3 BR/2.5 BA — $564,900
- 1959 Sagewood Ln, 2 BR/2 BA — $158,500
- 2158 Golf Course, 3 BR/4 BA — $475,000
- 1632 Wainwright Dr, 4 BR/3 BA — $459,900
- 12000 Taliesin PL #23 *, 2 BR/2 BA — $330,000
*These properties have advertised open houses
Meet Buster, a domestic short hair kitten available for adoption locally.
Here is what his friends at Little Buddies Adoption and Humane Society have to say about him:
Buster is a sweet boy. Full of personality.
He loves affection and is very playful. He loves to chase toys and play with laser lights. He is also found of wrestling with his brother, Baxter.
Buster was about three months old the beginning of September. Come meet this super young man!
(Note: Little Buddies has adoption events every Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at Pet Valu in the North Point Village Shopping Center.)
Are you and Buster a match? If so, let us know and our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, will send you some treats and prizes.
Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?
Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.
Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.
This is a sponsored post from Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate. For a more complete picture of home sales in your neighborhood, contact her on Reston Real Estate.
I’ve been checking out the new construction that’s popping up along Sunset Hills Road and Sunrise Valley Drive. As a long time Restonian it’s a little unnerving to see the crush of development taking place in areas that were previously office parks and light industry enclaves.
The new Pulte Homes project on Michael Faraday felt especially jarring to me. As I stood in a beautifully finished living room I experienced a kind of cognitive dissonance; every previous trip I’d ever made on that end of Sunset Hills Road has been related to dental appointments, trips to the Post Office or picking up to-go meals from China Star.
Now I was looking at an evolving skyline, two blocks away was the striking face of 1900 Reston Station — the Helmut Jahn building; beyond that the cranes are visible for the other mixed use projects that are coming to Sunset Hills.
The Pulte Homes project is the first of many to come along Sunset Hills Road that will create an entirely new Reston neighborhood, one with a much more urban feel to it than any other we’ve seen before.
The Pulte project is called Lofts at Reston Station. It is comprised of 12 two level row house styled condos and 32 one level condos in an elevator building. The one level condos offer 7 floor plans all two bedroom, 2 full bath units ranging from 1,274 sq. ft. to 1,668 sq. ft. The baseline features include 9 ft. ceilings, hardwood floors, granite counters in kitchens and baths and a full range of energy efficient and smart home technologies.
It will be interesting to watch this area develop over the next several years, transforming into a walkable, transit focused and very dense neighborhood. It looks like this neighborhood is on a path to develop into something that will have a core to anchor it — the Metro Plaza.
It will be interesting to watch that plaza evolve as the community settles in around it as residents rather than commuters. It’s not unlike Reston’s early developments, creating the gathering places, adding the residence and then letting it bubble into a neighborhood.
This is a sponsored post by Eve Thompson of Reston Real Estate.
Just 12 new properties were listed in Reston this past week. Inventory is painfully low at just 147 active listings. That represents a housing inventory of less than two months.
What is interesting is that houses are sitting on the market longer than one would expect given the very low inventory. The message for sellers — prepare your home for sale and price it competitively!
Here are few of the new homes for sale in Reston:
by Mina Fies, Synergy Design & Construction
You might think the remodeling industry is all about carpentry, cabinetry and chaos with not much room for fun. However, when we founded Synergy Design & Construction, we knew there was much more involved than just the sticks and bricks of the typical renovation experience.
That’s why we chose to add to go deeper with our clients to ensure we helped them create a home that was is in Alignment. Simply put, we help you better understand your connection to your home and how it influences your daily life, both at home and work.
One of the fun elements we encourage is a practice called “Intention Painting”. An intention painting is a way for you to energetically “stamp” your intentions for your new space onto the walls during the remodel.
Many of our clients participate (and make it a family affair) by writing meaningful sayings, quotes or just something playful about their family on the drywall before the space is painted. You won’t see it when the remodel is complete, but you’ll always know it’s there!
This month, rather than featuring one of our client transformations, we are sharing some holiday spirit with these real intention paintings from some our clients. So sit back, relax and feel inspired!
Download our FREE intention painting tip sheet and add some heart to your next remodel. If the warm and fuzzy stuff isn’t up your alley, you can also find out more about our approach to remodeling here, or stay in touch and sign up to receive no-commitment design inspiration directly in your inbox!
Wishing you and your family a festive holiday season and Happy New Year 2019!
